Glorious Failure, 2016

Performance on the opening of the Artefact Fesival, Leuven, Belgium. In response to a commission from STUK, together with seven master students Tijmen Bruyndonckx, Sara Kreike, Margot Budts, Lore D'Haene, Ruben Binnard, Lene Devrieze, Elisa Dehasque of Prof. Mattias Schevenels (architectural engineering, Catholic University Leuven) we developed this installation for the inner courtyard of STUK. In the context of Artefact, we aimed to offer a critical reflection on the relation between art and science. Starting from the perception that art is all too often instrumentalised, we intended to reverse the relationship in the search and development of this work; can art instrumentalise science? Not as an end goal, but as a strategy, a process, leading to Glorious Failure. Failure is central to this work. Since in the utilitarian perspective, much like in society at large, and science in particular, attention is mainly paid to stories of success. Glorious Failure proposes failure as a game and turning point; the moment of questioning. It is the continuation of a fundamental search into human vulnerability.

structure made of expanded polystyrene, balsa and brown (kraft)paper, 16 meters high, 120 kilos in total, position before uprising